Blue Ash neighbors battle over miniature horses

BLUE ASH, Ohio - Two Blue Ash neighbors continue to battle it out over two miniature horses living on Conklin Road.

Next door neighbor Dave Switzer said horse manure is spread out and in piles in the yard where the horses live.

"It's been going on a year and a half to two years, and it's progressively getting worse," he said.

The miniature horses live next to Switzer because they are being used as therapy for his neighbor's disabled child.

"I wouldn't have any problem with the horses but they won't clean after them," he said.

Switzer said his 6-year-old daughter's bedroom faces his neighbor's manure-filled yard. When temperatures get really hot, he said the smell is unbearable.

"I haven't been able to open my windows for two years, going on three years, I haven't even been able to grill out," he said. "My child can't even come out in her backyard because of the stench."

Since nothing has been done, Switzer wants to see those horses removed permanently. But, his neighbor and owner of the horses, Ingrid Anderson disagrees.

"It's an incredible therapy for Chloe because it's a social contact she wouldn't have otherwise had," she said. "Animals have historically been proven to cut the ice between people who don't have commonalities."

Anderson said the health department investigated her property, and she's never been cited. She stressed that she's keeping the horse manure in her yard for personal reasons.

"I'm a horticulturist retired from the Cincinnati Park Board, and manure is especially an asset when it's broken down," she said.

However, Switzer feels she's being disrespectful, and just wants something to be done.

"Blue Ash does not care," he said. "I had police out here, they don't care. I showed pictures and they said there's nothing they can do right now," Switzer said.

The city of Blue Ash has a council meeting scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. Switzer said he will be attending.